Time Trap
by Cassodembreankia
Summary: There were never brothers closer than Dan and Phil Lester. Then, on 2 May, 18-year-old Dan vanished, leaving 14-year-old Phil all alone. (NO slash.)(BROTP)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: So, I've had this in my head for a very long time. To me, Phan is BROTP. I'm completely convinced that Dan and Phil are brothers because Dan has a younger brother and Phil has an older brother. (Yes, I am completely aware that Phil is four-ish years older than Dan, but I promise that will be explained.)(And I modified the way they met - because it works better for me!)**

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**_'Dan's Disappearance_**_, by the Daily Cornet's Hayley Frost_

'No one has ever seen brothers who get along better than Dan and Phil Lester. Until Dan disappeared. The eighteen-year-old older brother vanished out of nowhere one night two weeks ago, on 2 May, when he went out to see a movie with his friends. Said friends told the police that after the movie they saw him get into his car and start to head home, but he never arrived. His fourteen-year-old younger brother Phil said that he was waiting up for Dan so they could play a video game together while their parents were asleep. But the elder Lester never arrived. When he still hadn't shown up by morning, Mr. and Mrs. Lester called the police.

'There has been no news of this mysterious disappearance since then. Dan is quite simply gone. There is a search party currently out looking for him, but so far, the results have yielded no clues.'

Phil sniffed with distaste at the short article before ripping it out of the paper, crumpling it up, and throwing it away. Dan wasn't gone. That wasn't possible. Dan promised he'd be back. And Dan never broke his promises. _Especially_ not when it came to playing video games while their parents were asleep. That was their favorite thing to do.

He walked off up the stairs of the old family house and slid silently into his older brother's bedroom, looking around. He'd spent… countless hours in there, surrounded by the stuffed toys Dan kept for sentimental sakes, playing games, prank calling friends, plotting world-domination, deciding which famous actresses they were going to marry one day, discussing the new Pokémon games that came out, and listening to music whilst lying on the floor staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars taped to the ceiling. He knew the brownish walls better than he knew the bluish walls of his own bedroom. He and his brother actually liked each other and rarely fought—and when they did it was because they both wanted to be the team leader of some video game or other or both wanted to marry Natalie Portman or someone. Much to the amusement of their parents their bickering was over superficial things that didn't matter.

And now all that was gone. It vanished along with Dan. The Lester brothers would never again sit on the floor and shout at each other to move out of the way while playing _Mario Kart_. Never again fan-boy over the newest generation of Pokémon released or have unnecessarily deep talks about the designs. And they would never again lie on their backs listening to Muse looking at the cheesy stars. To be honest, Phil didn't know what hurt the worst—Dan's loss or the loss of the fun they had. They were about the same in terms of sting. Both felt like a fire-walk. Or stepping on a Lego.

A knock echoed off the doorframe. 'Phil?' his mom asked. 'Do you want to go out with me and get that comic book that just came out?'

Phil shook his head. 'No thanks,' he muttered, sinking into the desk chair and picked up the picture of him and Dan on top of the Empire State Building in New York City, America. They had ruffled, shorter hair and massive, extremely cheesy grins. It was taken four years before when Phil was ten.

'I know this is hard honey. But it'll all be okay. They'll find him. He probably just…' Mom trailed off, not knowing how to finish her sentence.

'Went to Paris for a while?' Phil suggested sarcastically, bitterness quite apparent in his voice.

'Maybe.' Mrs. Lester shrugged.

Phil shook his fringe out of his eyes. Dan wasn't prone to outbursts of recklessness. He was remarkably un-self-destructive. Going to Paris for a couple weeks wasn't something he'd do without telling anyone—especially Phil. Something was wrong but no one else seemed to see it. Phil couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about Dan going missing wasn't right. He just wished he knew what it was—but it danced just out of reach, taunting him.

Mrs. Lester crossed from the doorway to the desk chair, knelt, and pulled her son into a hug. Phil's skinny, pale arms came up and he felt the tears he hadn't realized were in his eyes slide down his face and splash onto the shoulder of her shirt. And just like that, he lost it. Everyone was allowed a couple breakdowns a year, and this was the first one for him in about two years.

He sobbed for what felt like days, but was probably about twenty minutes. His mom just held him and said nothing, letting him cry.

'You're a strong boy, Phil,' she murmured comfortingly as the flow of tears steadily subsided. 'You'll be okay. And you know what? Dan is a strong boy too. He'll get through whatever happening to him and come home to us. We may not know how long that will take, but it _will_ happen. They'll find him.'

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**End Note: So, this has been a ride, and there will definitely be more. I have three/four chapters waiting in the wings. It moves fast so that it's not one of those dragging stories, and I hope you like it!**

**Thank you so much for reading!**

**~Cass**


	2. Chapter 2

But they didn't. Eight years later, Dan was still missing. There had been no trace of him. Not even a scent to follow.

Phil had done his best to move on. It still hurt like a bee sting as the anniversary of his brother's disappearance neared, but he'd managed to distract himself with new things. The internet and YouTube being a big one. He'd even made a couple new friends. But nothing made up for the hole where his brother had been. As far as he was concerned, no one could ever heal that. No more _Mario Kart_ until six AM, no more conversations about anime or Harry Potter.

_Wow_. _Twenty-two seems so old_, Phil thought as he rummaged under his bed for the sock that had fallen under it. He had to go do something just to get out of the house. He didn't know what though. Maybe he'd go into town or run through the hills with his arms spread out because he had the mental age of an eight-year-old.

Before he knew it, he was sitting in a café with a large cup of coffee in front of him. He was staring out the window at the dark storm churning overhead.

'Hi,' a voice with an accent not quite right for the region greeted. 'Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full and I don't want to go outside because it looks like it's going to rain and I don't want to get wet.'

Phil shrugged, not looking away. 'Sure,' he replied, nodding to the empty seat near him and looking at the stranger for the first time. He was about six feet tall with long dark hair with a fringe similar to Phil's own, except slightly different and flipped to the other side. He had dark brown eyes and tannish skin. He was fairly skinny, and clad completely in black. 'I'm Phil,' he added. 'Phil Lester.'

The stranger smiled, revealing a deep dimple on his left cheek. 'I'm Dan—Dan Howell.'

It took a good deal of effort on Phil's part not to cringe. 'That's my brother's name,' he remarked, trying to sound nonchalant.

'Well, it's a great name,' Dan Howell joked with an amused chuckle. Phil felt the corners of his lips tug up in an unwilling smile. There was something friendly and comfortable about this newcomer. Probably the laid-back aura he exuded. Something that made Phil feel like they could talk without the awkward this-is-the-first-time-I've-ever-seen-you-in-my-life-so-we-have-to-only-make-small-talk crap that usually came with meeting new people.

But, of course, rules of society still had to be followed, so it wasn't like he was going to lay his entire life-story out on this guy he'd barely met.

'Yeah,' he muttered.

'So what's your life like? How's it treating you?' Dan asked.

Phil shrugged. 'Treating me fine I guess. Not much interesting is really going on,' he replied.

* * *

The two talked for hours, falling into an easy rapport. They talked about the shows they liked and their favorite types of food and found out that they both found drawing cat whiskers on their face absolutely hilarious—though neither of them were sure why they had ever thought of that. 'You know, I think you should try YouTubing,' Phil commented as they stood up and started to walk outside. 'You'd be great at it.' Dan's eyebrows lifted slightly with skepticism.

'What do you mean?' he asked.

'Well it's kind of fun to talk to people and tell them funny stories or opinions on something and I'm sure people would think you're funny.'

Dan shook his head. 'I don't think I'm very funny or entertaining.'

'You literally told me you've done drama almost your whole life a half hour ago,' Phil pointed out. 'And if what I've heard is true, you don't get very far on stage if you're not entertaining.' Dan pulled a face and didn't say anything while they looked around at the storm brewing overhead. 'So where are you headed?' Phil asked, pointing up and down the road.

Dan shrugged. 'Dunno. First time here. Where would you suggest?'

Phil blew out a breath a bit like a raspberry as he thought. 'Well the cinema's up the street,' he replied, scratching the back of his head. 'Or there's a shopping centre that way.' He nodded off to his left. 'Or there's just sort of quaint little shops all along that street,' he concluded, pointing off to the right.

'So where are you headed?'

'I dunno. I was thinking about going outside of town for the afternoon and get a breath of fresh air.'

'"Fresh air"?' Dan quoted. 'No thank you. I'm more the kind to stay in and waste time on the internet all day.'

Phil snickered. 'Yeah, same, but I've been trapped inside for like eight years—not literally—and just feel like I need to see the hills and woods again.' He put his forehead in his hand. 'That sounded _really_ cheesy,' he mumbled into his palm. Dan shrugged like he didn't mind it sounding cheesy and looked at the sky as a raindrop splashed onto his forehead.

'Mind if I come with? I grew up around woods, just not here,' he asked.

'Be my guest. There's not a lot to see. Just a lot of trees.'

'Thanks. I'm curious about this place.'

'What for?' Phil asked. 'It's not like it's London. It's not even particularly interesting.'

Dan shrugged nonchalantly. 'I like new places,' he commented. 'And making new friends.' He gave Phil a cheesy smile. The older one rolled his eyes.

The two reached the trees before they thought they would. The time just seemed to shoot by while they talked. Goodness-knows-how-many topics were discussed as they travelled the paths and got their shoes dirty. They were similar discussions to the ones Phil had once had with his brother. Pokémon, Harry Potter, anime, video games, and cereal took up most of the afternoon. The sun had started to go down and they realized they were hungry. 'Wow,' Phil remarked. 'I haven't had this much fun in… years. Thank you.'

'No, thank _you_ for being so nice to me on my first day here,' Dan replied.

'No problem. I like making friends—considering I don't really have that many.'

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**End Note: Another chapter out of the way. This one literally took me a week to write because I couldn't think of a decent way to tend it, and even now I still don't like it, but that's okay. It could have been worse.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**~Cass**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: So, I don't really care about anachronisms, but I don't know if the Doctor Who episode I've used was actually out when this chapter is supposed to take place. But... I don't care. There was no such thing as a clock tower in Julius Caesar's time, but that didn't stop Shakespeare, so it's not going to stop me. That's neither here nor there, so let's just get on with it!**

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'You know when you meet someone and it's like you've known them your whole life?' the Doctor asked on the TV. 'It's like that. Time's being rewritten all the time…'

Dan was fast asleep on the other sofa of their Manchester apartment, sprawled out and mouth half-open. Phil was sitting in his usual spot, eyes wide at what the Doctor was saying. That was _exactly_ how he'd felt when Dan had asked if anyone was sitting in the seat opposite him… two years ago. Had it really been _two years_ since they first met? Wow. It hadn't _felt_ like that long. And yet, there they were.

Phil glanced down at his mobile and looked at the date. May second. He felt the phone slip out of his hand and _plunk_ onto the floor. The noise woke Dan up. 'Wha—?' he asked incoherently. 'Wha's goin' on?' His voice was slurred from sleep.

'My brother disappeared ten years ago today. And I didn't even notice the date was coming up!'

About a year after they met, Phil had finally told Dan the story of his brother's—also Dan—mysterious disappearance. For about two hours after the complete confession, Dan (Howell) had been silent, and told Phil—when the older young man asked why he wasn't talking much—that he had a younger brother back home and didn't know what it would do to said younger brother if he had disappeared.

'Wow. _Ten_ years? That's… a long time.'

'I know. I don't know how I didn't notice this year. Normally I dread it from about mid-March till now.'

'How'd you forget?'

'I'm not sure. I think life just came at me faster than I could keep up and suddenly individual days just blurred into one big long… _thing_ and now I'm realizing exactly how distracted I've been for about the past year and… well… here I am. My brother's been legally dead for nine years, but gone for ten, and I forgot so hard I didn't even plan a trip to his gravestone.' His family had buried an empty coffin for closure—something fifteen-year-old Phil had never quite understood since it hadn't given him any—and usually he took time out of his schedule to go and visit the headstone.

'Do you want to head up this afternoon?' Dan asked carefully. 'I mean, I know it's a personal thing for you, so I'll stay here, but you can go up.'

Phil shook his head. 'Maybe it's about time I got over it.'

'Phil, I can't be sure, but I don't think anyone is _ever_ supposed to get completely over the loss of someone close to them. No matter how far away you distance yourself, it'll still sting—still hurt. And that's just part of being human. It's better than being a Dalek don't you think?' Dan nodded at the TV where _Doctor Who_ was still playing. Phil glanced over at the dorky guy in the bowtie and sighed. His flatmate had a point.

'I think I'd rather be a Time Lord,' he remarked. Dan chuckled and rolled his eyes.

'You should go up. Maybe it'll make you feel better.'

'Want to come with me?'

'Only if you want me to.'

'Well, it's better than going up alone. But we don't have to stop and get flowers or anything—Dan always thought flowers were useless. Told me if he died first I wasn't allowed to put flowers on his grave,' Phil commented. Dan snorted with amusement.

'Well, I never met him, but I must say, I agree.'

* * *

The cemetery was almost completely deserted. There was one other person quite a ways away—so they wouldn't hear each other. Dan was standing a few feet behind Phil, staring blankly at the older Lester brother's stone. Phil was looking at the fancy font in which _Daniel James Lester_ was etched into the granite—or marble (he'd never really known which it was)—not entirely sure how he was supposed to be feeling. He felt sad, but at the same time he almost felt nothing at all. His eyes were thinking about watering, but they weren't.

Dan sat down on the grass and observed silently. Phil copied him and sat down.

'Hi Dan,' Phil greeted the headstone (which, after a polite pause, thankfully for Phil's sanity didn't reply). 'I miss you.' He paused as he thought about what to say next. 'But this is Dan Howell. He's my flatmate.' Phil pointed back where Dan was seated. 'These past ten years have certainly been… long. But this last one has been better. Since I moved in with Dan I've had more fun than I did at uni. But hey, life gets better right? I wish you were still here and wish I knew what happened to you and why you disappeared. But it's been a decade. So I guess… you're just gone. _But_ if you ever decide you don't like being dead, just come back. I'll introduce you to Dan and we can all stay up until five in the morning playing Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers. Does that sound fun? I hope it does. I think it sounds like great fun. So it's an open invitation.' He felt slightly weird talking to the stone with another human being nearby—generally when he'd visited on previous occasions he'd been completely alone—but Dan (Howell) knew that Phil had a tendency to be slightly odd and wouldn't judge him for having a few words with his (possibly) dead brother.

Again, there was no reply from the memorial. Phil got out the water bottle he'd brought and cleaned off the smooth face of it for a moment. When he was done he patted the top, sighed, and stood up properly.

'Right. Bye then. Until next year,' he said. His flatmate got to his feet and they walked back towards the town. If they were lucky they could be back in Manchester before the sun went down.

They were silent on the train ride back, neither of them thinking too much about the other person. Phil was lost somewhere deep in his memories and Dan was lost in creations of his mind on what would happen if he'd disappeared and left his younger brother alone. Phil put on a good, goofy, smiling face for the world but today had shown that there was still a wound—a scar—on his feelings that would probably never go away. Would that happen to his little brother?

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**End Note: I love this story so much. I love most of my stories (except the ones that suck), but I think this is a favorite of mine.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**~Cass**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: I just realized I never put this up. Holy cow. I apologize.**

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Another four years went by. Dan and Phil had moved to London from Manchester about three years back to be on the BBC Radio. And everything was going great. They were both having a good time and enjoying life. On the outside anyway.

On the _inside_, however, Dan felt like banging his head against his wardrobe. It was the middle of April of twenty-fifteen. It had been nearly six and a half years.

He was editing a video in the 'office'/'nerd room' when Phil popped his head in. 'I can't find the TV remote,' the older flatmate commented. Dan had his headphones on and subsequently didn't hear him. 'Dan? Dan. _Dan_!' No response. So Phil did something any normal human being would do.

Throw a pen at him.

The thing clocked Dan square in the shoulder before dropping to the floor. With a choice word that's probably been edited out for innocence purposes, Dan jumped out of his skin and whirled on Phil, yanking his headphones off. 'What do you want?!' he demanded. 'Why couldn't you just poke me like a normal person? That hurt!' Phil rolled his eyes.

'I can't find the TV remote.'

Dan face-palmed. 'Check under the sofa cushions. If it's not there, maybe one of us took it to the kitchen and accidentally left it.' Phil withdrew his head and Dan went back to editing.

'FOUND IT!' Phil shouted. Dan made a grunt of acknowledgement and put his headphones on.

For the next three hours while he edited the gaming video, he repeatedly hit his forehead against the desk, causing the speaker to fall off of it once or twice. Phil was used to the noises, so he didn't even ask what was going on. He had no idea that Dan wasn't even thinking about editing. His mind was so far down the rabbit hole he passed through Narnia and Middle Earth and had gone straight to Never Land—because he was _never_ getting out of this mess. At least until he got his head on straight.

The sun was going down by the time the video was ready to render and export. So he started the process and went off to go get something to eat.

He was pouring a mug of chocolate milk to make hot chocolate when he set it down. He needed to do it. Now. If he didn't… he was never going to do it. And he probably should. Living a lie kind of sucked—he didn't like it very much. 'Phil! You got a moment?' he called, leaving the kitchen and heading for the lounge.

'Yeah. What's up?' Phil replied. Dan dragged a dining chair in front of the TV and blocked it. Phil paused the Netflix episode and looked around, confused. 'What's going on?' His eyebrows scrunched and he waited. There was something disconcerting about the look in the back of his flatmate's eyes.

'I'm Dan,' Dan said.

Phil's eyes flicked back and forth. 'Well… y_eah!_' he retorted sarcastically.

Dan shook his head. 'No. I mean, I'm _Dan_.'

And suddenly, Phil's jaw dropped. He remembered where he'd seen the pattern of moles on Dan's cheek before. Why they'd looked so implacably familiar when he'd first met Dan all those years ago.

They were his brother's.

If Dan thought Phil was going to be happy about this, he was wrong.

'You mean to tell me you've been my brother the _ENTIRE BLOODY TIME_ and you _NEVER_ told me?!' he demanded angrily.

'You just seemed so happy. I didn't want to spoil it for you,' Dan replied carefully.

'_Happy?!_ I've been _miserable_ for fourteen years you _idiot!_'

'Then you hid it very well!' Dan retorted. 'I thought I'd give you the chance to be the older brother.'

'Six years you've known me and never once did you think to say "Hey, I'm actually your older brother trapped in some weird time suspension thing for eight years so now I'm four years younger than you!"?!' Phil snapped.

'Phil! I've been thinking that every day for the past six years!' Dan spat back. Phil—still fuming—jackknifed to his feet and stormed out of the room. 'Phil!' No answer. 'Phillip Michael Lester!' Dan shouted, jumping out of the dining chair and running after him. 'I'm sorry okay?!' He figured Phil's anger was completely justified—if slightly unexpected. When he caught up, his brother rounded on him.

'_Sorry_ doesn't cover it Daniel! For fourteen years people have told me you were dead and I refused to believe them! You always kept your promises and you promised to come home and play a video game with me. But _noooooo!_ You vanished!'

'Not my choice, I swear!' Dan replied, trying to lower their voices so they wouldn't annoy the neighbors—not that Phil cared.

It was kind of hard for Phil to grasp that his best friend of six years was his brother who had disappeared. That Dan Howell was Dan Lester. Most of his rage petered out and he rubbed his nose. 'But… I've met your family. Your parents. Your younger brother. The Howells,' he protested, voice growing so soft it was almost hard to hear. 'How is this possible? How did you manage to become four years younger than me?' Dan sighed and put his hands in his pockets.

'It's called a Time Trap. That night I went to see a movie with John and the others. On my way home I saw this really bright light—like a UFO—over my head. I was headed straight for it. And I crashed the car into whatever it was.

'Before I knew it I was suspended in time—and space. Like the colorful candy-floss stuff inside the portal in Big Hero Six. There were three other people in there. A man, a woman, and a boy younger than me. We were all taken at the same time. The three of them decided to become the Howells whenever it was we got out. I wasn't going to go along with it. The second I got out I was going right back to my family. But Mum—as I've taken to calling her—raised the point to me that my family would have moved on without me. And maybe it was a good time to start my life over. So I became Daniel James Howell. We had eight years of being completely frozen to create a full story for ourselves.

'Then, out of nowhere, we were released. We landed in Berkshire—where we picked up the accent and lived for about a month—and then I was off to the University of Manchester. And while I was there, I ran into you at Starbucks. To be honest, I thought I was hallucinating. You weren't a dorky fourteen-year-old anymore, but you were still you. Like eight years hadn't gone by. I told myself I would introduce myself to you and would see if you recognized me. If you didn't, I wouldn't press you. I'd wait until you figured out who I was. Finally, I decided I was finished waiting. So here we are,' Dan explained.

Phil wasn't quite sure what to do. 'Why you?'

Dan shook his head. 'I don't know. We've never known.'

* * *

**End Note: ****THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE CHAPTER I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO SHARING WITH YOU FOR THE _LONGEST TIME - _OR AT LEAST SINCE I STARTED WRITING THIS THING!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**~Cass**


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